The New Look: The Hour - Episode 02 - RECAP
There is something about the series that I'm starting to like the series is about how Coco Chanel was a German Military informant during WWII, although this seem to be right, I have never investigate or study about WWII except fro the very basics and less about how fashion icons like Coco Chanel could be involve. She does seem to had a big mouth always talking more than she have too probably the main reason she was in constant troubles and instead to staying far from WWII matters she just keep digging herself deeper and deeper, the plot of the series is about the story of Christian Dior and his contemporaries but episode two is all about Coco Chanel and her interactions with German Spies, yes there is the problem Dior is dealing with the arrest of his sister Catherine but again does feel that all that is secondary at the moment.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Just as I mention the Spy Coco Chanel working with or for the Germans, in any terms you want to put it; her business partners fled Paris the moment they knew Germans were getting closer but she decided to stay probably proud of her country and now all her bank accounts have been shut down without access to funds but General Schellemberg for some reason thinks Coco can get a hold to Winston Churchill, at the time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Schellemberg is trying to make peace and end the war and had offer Coco to recover her company in exchange of her help, she though he was easy to manipulate but she is playing with fire, gas and the matches all at the same time, after running her mouth way too much its either ask what she is told or a bullet to her head.
Catherine has been arrested and is now starting to get torture by German Officers, they know she work with the resistance and may have valuable information but at the moment German Army seem to be divided and weak, trying to make peace with the Allies; I guess in other departments it was business as usual try to take over the world?? this is when the episode starts to get a bit disappointing because neither Catherine torture or Christian crying because of what she is going through were very convincing, I'm starting to have the idea that there could be a few more episodes like this and it can fall from a 7 to something close to a 6.
Both Coco and Christian look desperate on their own situation, I give it some though and during such times either you are part of war or trying to survive the outcome is never a pleasant one unless you are on the wining side in this case for some time was the Germans but you also had to keep in mind what would be the repercussions of going into bed with the Germans besides most of the time you never had an advantage since the same way they could provide you with everything you ask they could also take it away by force at any time. Difference between Christian and Coco is that she was alone and Christian had all his friends from the fashion world trying to help him free his sister, again looks like a series to put out of business Coco Chanel if it was release during WWII.
Lucien Lelong on the series was not only Christian and teacher but also a very good friend, he was using any influence that he might have, same goes for Christobal Balenciaga another fashion designer who was friends with Dior but this was a politics matter something the had no influence or contacts with, by now it has been confirm that Catherine is prisoner at Rue de la Pompe where there is an interrogation house used by the Germans. There was this agreement among designers like Balenciaga not to design for Germans but others like Lelong had no other choice because it was design and get paid or getting killed so again I guess you can't judge people under such circumstances but what is true if you stay away like probably Balenciaga did and not run your mouth you could at least stay free of all this although you would be suffering, no money, no food, alone, who knows?
Was not the case of Chanel, she kept running her mouth and now because of her actions she got no other option than to move forward and come up with a plan to get to Churchill, she plans to use Elsa Lombardi, fact in real life her name was "Vera Bate Lombardi", seem some of the characters name and probably the story have been alter who knows why, copy rights, legal actions, what ever the could be the reason for this. Elsa was going to be use as leverage to get close to Churchill in Madrid, the excuse is opening a boutique, the Spatz makes arrangements to kidnap Elsa and bring her to Paris to Chanel.
Catherine has manage to survive the interrogations so far, as I mention this interrogation scenes were nothing just her who looks in pain and a man asking her to talk but nothing else, few dark scenes and that's it, I would expect more, the women who organize things around is actually a French women and kinda try to help her, letting her know to stay strong and she will be move out of Paris probably going to the work camps at least that way she can remain alive and not dead like the rest who got arrested, again we se the results of working with the Germans, this women knows when all this is over and if the Germans loose the war she has no place in Paris and will probably even be persecuted "my countrymen will never forgive me".
Elsa arrive to Paris, it seems like Coco had no idea she was kidnap but the second they met Elsa realize Coco is with the Germans, this was not a so fun episode to watch as every other scene goes around the same topics but not much action and I would agree if anyone says this episode has a so slow pace and its boring.
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Finally a bit of action, Elsa, Coco and Spatz are going to Madrid by train, Spatz reveal to Coco that Schellemberg has been trying to make peace with Churchill behind doors but had no luck, they were always his back plan to get to Churchill and now the Gestapo is on high alert, they are looking for him specifically but Schellemberg still have enough power on the German Army to smuggle Spatz into Spain, I always knew it was foolish to try to use Elsa after she got kidnap, she was furious and desperate but Coco and Spatz were desperate too so none of them have any options although out of the three the one with more options was Elsa, who stab Coco in the back the moment she had the chance going to the UK embassy in Spain and reveling Coco plan to the ambassador.
I have to admit that this was not a very fun episode to watch, its like they wanted to give out a lot but a lot of context to whats coming up next but at the same time all the drama and redundancy of the scenes make it very slow pace and boring, I manage to watch the episode without quitting just because I like the story although I hope there is enough action through the rest of the episodes to keep me interested, some times TV Series could be this boring through all episodes and you had to quit, keep in mind this is time you wasting. I don't want to get too far ahead because at least they going into details of how things happen and not just skipping scenes but there has to be a balance, on Masters of The Air people complain how the series skip scenes and jump through time but on The New Look its the opposite. If the third episode is anything like the first two I would assume that next we are going to have the conclusion of Catherine arrest, Coco failed plan and the Germans leaving Paris, this would give a fresh new start to the series and move into other aspects of Christian Dior story, keep in mind that all this started because he was ask why he kept working for Germans during WWII and Coco Chanel decided "not to".
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